By David Crystal

New from Cambridge University Press!

By Peter Mark Roget

This book "supplies a vocabulary of English words and idiomatic phrases 'arranged … according to the ideas which they express'. The thesaurus, continually expanded and updated, has always remained in print, but this reissued first edition shows the impressive breadth of Roget's own knowledge and interests."

Announced in http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1803.htmlEDITORS: Anderman, Gunilla; and Rogers, MargaretTITLE: In and Out of EnglishSUBTITLE: For Better, for Worse?SERIES: Translating EuropeYEAR: 2005PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters

This book, a collection of papers on various aspects of translationvis-à-vis English, is 'the result of the Enlargement of the European Unionand the rapidly changing face of Europe' (vii). Accordingly, all of theexamples and case studies presented in the volume come from Europeancountries. The exception is Chapter 2, which focuses on English and Lao inthe Laotian context. The body of the book consists of the nineteenchapters briefly summarized below.

Recognizing the role of English as the European (and global) lingua franca,the authors present six 'arguments' regarding the maintenance and possiblepromotion of English in Europe: linguistic imperialism, global English,English and translation, global English language learning and teaching,international English, and pragmalinguistics. Anderman and Rogers providea brief history of languages of widespread communication (colonization),e.g. Greek, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Russian, and -- ofcourse -- English. They then discuss the rise of global English, itsinfluence on European languages, its native and non-native speakers, andits asymmetry in translation, among other aspects of English in Europe andthe United States. The authors end the chapter with a quote from DavidCrystal questioning whether the global role of English will be viewed as ablessing or a curse for future generations.

Chapter 2: 'English translation and hegemony in the global era' by StuartCampbell (27-38)

Campbell begins his chapter by stating that professional translators,including theorists, educators, and practitioners, have ignored the spreadof English, treating the language like any other language, not as aparticular lingua franca. He discusses three key issues in translating inand out of English: power relations, value neutrality, and legitimatespace. To illustrate the unequal balance in translation, he contraststraining community translators in Australia to developing a translation andinterpreting unit in Laos.

Chapter 3: 'Unequal systems: On the problem of Anglicisms in contemporaryFrench usage' by Christopher Rollason (39-56)

After stating that Anglicisms and pseudo-Anglicisms are not new in theFrench language, Rollason lists possible reasons for the hostility of theperceived 'Americanisation' of French, quoting journalists, literarycritics, and psychoanalysts. The author then proffers possible motives forthe use of non-French terms, as well as the deliberate selection of Frenchlexical items, in written discourse.

Chapter 4: 'E-mail, Emilio or mensaje de correo electrónico? The Spanishlanguage fight for purity in the new technologies' by Jeremy Munday (57-70)

Munday gives a summary of some of the ways Spanish, not only a major worldlanguage but also an official language of both the UN and the EU, isreacting to the spread of English. He focuses on the fight for languagepurity by the Real Academia de la Lengua and the Instituto Cervantes.

Chapter 5: 'The influence of English on Italian: The case of translationsof economic articles' by Maria Teresa Musacchio (71-96)

Musacchio reports on a study using a parallel/comparable corpus of economicarticles to determine 'to what extent language contact in translatingaffects target text production beyond lexical borrowing to take the form oftransfer or patterns such as syntactic constructs, reproduction of sourcetext repetition and cohesion' (73). She finds that in addition totransferring English lexical items in Italian economic articles,translators often transfer English syntactic structures and discourse patterns.

In this chapter, the author concentrates on the sociological aspects of theinfluence of English lexical items on the Greek lexicon. Tsagouriaoutlines major developments in Greek society, beginning with the latenineteenth century, and analyzes the attitudes of Greek writers who employEnglish vocabulary in their writings.

Chapter 7: 'Polish under siege?' by W. Chłopicki (108-122)

The author of this chapter addresses the question of whether or not Polishis threatened by the spread of English. After claiming that Polish is usedby 40 million citizens of Poland as well as 10 to 15 million Polishspeakers residing abroad, he provides an historical background on thelanguage contact situation in Poland and concludes that Polish is notindeed dying as a result of English influence.

In this chapter, Chachibaia and Colenso address the issue of why there areso many recent Anglicisms in the Russian language. They argue that thereare three main reasons for borrowings from English: a lack of an equivalentword in Russian, an established positive/negative connotation that anequivalent word lacks, and an established stylistic/emphatic effect.

In this chapter the authors seek to answer the question of what happens'when a Germanic, analytic language like English meets a non-Indo-European,Finno-Ugric synthetic language such as Finnish' (133). To that end, theycomment on the domains of English in Finland; e.g. English in advertising,English in information technology, English in job ads, English ontelevision, 'translationese', and 'Finglish'.

Chapter 10: 'Contemporary English influence on German -- a perspective fromlinguistics' by Stephen Barbour (153-160)

Barbour addresses the widespread perception that German is being intenselyinfluenced by English. He categorizes the German lexicon according towords that are core German words (Deutsche Wörter) and words that are fromforeign languages (Fremdwörter), as well as those that derive from Frenchand those that derive from English. He concludes that English is neitherdestroying nor taking over German.

Chapter 11: 'Anglicisms and translation' by Henrik Gottlieb (161-184)

Gottlieb's focus is the occurrence of Anglicisms in the Danish context. Claiming 'Anglicisms constitute perhaps the strongest unifying factor amongthe world's languages' (161), the author provides a typology of Anglicismsin Danish, a hierarchy of Danish lexical Anglicisms, and a list of the roleof Anglicisms in Danish. He concludes the chapter with the claim that theonly 'pure' form of a language is a fossilized one.

Johansson and Graedler investigate the use of English lexical items inNorwegian, in their examination of the use of Anglicisms in music, fashion,sports, soccer, the Olympics, films, television, advertising, economics,and slang, inter alia. They conclude their chapter with a brief discussionof Norwegian attitudes towards Anglicisms.

In this chapter, Gellerstam examines the current period of strong Englishinfluence on the Swedish lexicon. The author uses the phrase 'leavingfingerprints in translation' to refer to cases in which the original text,in this case English, influences the translation into Swedish. ForGellerstam such fingerprints are the result of early English languageacquisition and the absence of more than one Swedish alternative for thetranslation.

Wagner asks, 'What is happening to English?' She answers her question byintroducing a new term, 'sub-English', 'the defective but by no meansstandardised or impoverished English that is often used for internationalcommunication' (215). Following an explanation of the causes of'sub-English', a categorization of translation types, and an examination oflanguage use and types in different EU institutions, she offers two ways ofimproving the quality of original texts, i.e. through training and editing.

Chapter 15: 'Translating into a second language: Can we, should we?' byBeverly Adab (227-241)

The thesis of Adab's chapter is to argue that the 'translation meme' oftranslators' working into their first language is becoming untenable, 'dueto the lack of native speakers of the target language who have a similarcompetence in the source language' (227). For Adab the issue is to enhancethe acceptability of the target texts. She concludes her chapter with arecommendation that translators work within a controlled form of the targetlanguage.

Chapter 16: 'Translating English as a non-native language: The Dutchconnection' by Marcel Thelen (242-255)

Thelen takes up the issue of the 'mother tongue principle', i.e. thattranslators should translate works into their first language. Focusing onthe Dutch context, he argues against the stipulation that only nativeEnglish speakers should translate texts into English. He then discusses aGeneral Subject-Field-Specific Language Studies program as a model for anew and independent discipline for translation schools/programs.

Also taking up the issue of the mother tongue principle is Rogers. In thischapter she discusses a case study in which translations from German intoEnglish by native speakers of English were compared to translations fromGerman into English by non-native speakers of English (native speakers ofGerman). In the small case study she shows how the native speakers'translations were actually less fit, supporting her argument that competentnon-native speakers can outperform native speakers in translating.

In this chapter Anderman discusses the plight of European authors who writein their native languages rather than in English. After presenting thehegemony of prevailing literary traditions (in which French plays wereroutinely translated into English), she contrasts that with twentiethcentury literary and linguistic hegemony (in which English works areroutinely translated into other languages).

Ife considers the particular characteristics of people communicating in alanguage that is not the first language of the majority of the world, i.e.English. In this final chapter of the book she focuses on the need forpragmatic competence in the lingua franca context.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Though the inclusion of various authors' works and opinions increases thebreadth of the book, it also diminishes the depth of analysis in any givencontext. Accordingly, the reader feels as though the book tries to do toomuch while simultaneously not doing enough. The writing throughout thebook is uneven. Some chapters present clearly defined/analyzed researchwith specific conclusions; others seem only to offer anecdotes of limitedrelevance.

Overall, the sequencing of the chapters is easy to follow. Roughly, thefirst half of the book is devoted to contemporary examples of Englishinfluence in various European contexts, and the second half consists ofdiscussions of the force of English influence in translation and argumentsagainst having only native speakers of English translate into English. Given the structure of the book, the inclusion of the second chapter, whichfocuses on Australia and Laos, is puzzling. Missing from the book is afinal chapter that makes the connections among the chapters and offersdirections for further research in the area of translation.

The most disappointing part of the book is the first chapter, contributedby the authors themselves. They refer to a few scholars in the area ofWorld Englishes (e.g. Phillipson 1992, Crystal, 1997, Phillipson andSkutnabb-Kangas 1999), but omit references to other major scholars whomight offer opposing viewpoints, e.g. Kachru (1982, 1992) and Pennycook(1994), and references to other recent works on the influence of English onother languages, e.g. Gramley (2001); Allerton, Skandera, and Tschichold(2002); and Maurais and Morris (2003). Likewise, the authors raise thequestions of whether an English language learner can become a 'nativespeaker' and what exactly is meant by the term 'native speaker' (14)without referring to Paikeday's (1985) discussion of this linguistic myth.

In all, this book may be of interest to scholars and practitioners intranslation studies as it does raise significant concerns about thepractice of translating in and out of English. World Englishes scholars,on the other hand, may find some of the discussions and examples presentedthroughout the book cursory and trivial.

Paikeday, Thomas M. 1985. The native speaker is dead! An informaldiscussion of a linguistic myth with Noam Chomsky and other linguists,philosophers, psychologists, and lexicographers. Toronto: Paikeday Publishing.

Pennycook, Alastair. 1994. The cultural politics of English as aninternational language. London: Longman.

Phillipson, Robert, and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. 1999. Englishisation: Onedimension of globalization. English in a changing world, AILA Review 13,ed. by David Graddol and U. Meinhof. Oxford: English Book Centre, 19-36.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Richard W. Hallett is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at NortheasternIllinois University in Chicago. His research areas include World Englishes(particularly the mediation of ideology in English language teachingmaterials) and the discourse of tourism.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Richard W. Hallett is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at NortheasternIllinois University in Chicago. His research areas include World Englishes(particularly the mediation of ideology in English language teachingmaterials) and the discourse of tourism.